One-piece rail anchor



May l0, 1960 Filed Jan. 30, 1957 El i' R. W. PAYNE ONE-PIECE RAIL ANCHOR 2 Sheets-Sheet l ias INVENTOR. RALPH VV. PAYNE y@ WW nited States Patent ONE-PIECE RAIL ANCHOR Ralph W. Payne, Washington, D.C., assigner, by mesne assignments, to Poor & Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application January 30,1957, Serial No. 637,207

1 Claim. (Cl. 23S-327) This invention relates to Rail Anchors and more particularly to the general type of One-Piece Rail Anchor show-n in Patent No. 1,559,589.

The above type of rail anchor may be ybriefly described as comprising a low carbon steel bar of rectangular cross section formed at one end with a hook-shaped bend adapted to exert gripping pressure on the top and bottom surfaces of a base ilange of a railway rail at one side of the rail. The other end of the bar is offset to provide a locking shoulder for engaging an edge surface of a base flange at the other side of the rail, and the portion of the bar intermediate the said hook and said locking shoulder is bowed downwardly relative to the rail so as to abut against a vertical face of an adjacent crosstie at a substantial distance below the rail base.

The above type of rail anchor, as heretofore made, provides a strong wedging grip on the base portion of a rail, but it is not entirely satisfactory, since it Iis necessary, for purpose of economy, to form such anchor from a low carbon steel bar of substantially the cross-section hereinafter specied to provide it with the desired holding power.

lt has been customary, in the manufacture of the above type of anchor device, to form it from a bar of rectangular cross section having a horizontal width of approximately 7/s inch and a vertical thickness of approximately 1% inches. This Width of bar provides the anchor device with rail gripping surfaces of optimum width for exerting firm frictional grips on the rail base without like- Vlihood of slippage lengthwise ofthe rail and without vide improvements whereby an anchor of the above type may be made of less weight and, at the same time, maintain rail gripping surfaces of said optimum width and to make it practical to increase the eifective vertical thickness of the anchor so as to increase its holding power, but will not require increased manual force to .apply the anchor to a rail.

A further important object of the present invention is to provide a structure which will accomplish the above stated improved results and which will facilitate the manufacture of the improved anchor device bythe use -of conventional equipment and in harmony with standardized rolling mill practices and tolerances.

Prior efforts have been made by others to provide Vsimilar improvements with the view of reducingV the weight of such anchor device and, at the same time, maintain its highly ellicient resilient wedge grip on the rail. ,In some instances the said proposed improvements have frice contemplated the use of low carbon channel bar stock, but the results obtained thereby have not been satisfactory, since the proposed improvements could not be produced Without radical departures from established rolling mill practices and tolerances. Furthermore, the cross section of the channel bar stock heretofore proposed has usually been such that the side flanges thereof project upward-ly from the base web of the channel for greater distances than the vertical thickness of said base web. Consequently the body of metal in the base web of such channel is insuilicient to transmit enough heat to the flanges of the bar to maintain them sufficiently pliable to respondV to the stretching and compression forces developed during the bending of the bar around a forming die. Because of the rapid cooling of the flanges of a deep channel bar, that is to say a channel bar in which the height of the said flanges, measured from their junction with the base web of the channel, is greater than the thickness of said base web, the cooler outer edges of the side flanges resist stretching thereof during the bending of the hook portion of the bar and therefore tend to move laterally from their perpendicular positions to semi-collapsed angular positions. When the ilanges assume said semi-collapsed angular positions, 'they no longer perform their intended rigidifying function.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 illustrates a face view, in elevation, of a rail anchor device constructed in accordance with this invention,gthe anchor being illustrated in its applied position rail anchor applied to .a base flange of a railroad rail,

the view being shown on a larger scale to better illustrate a principal feature of the improved construction;

Fig. 6 is an -end View of the structure shown in Fig. 5 illustrating in dot-and-dash lines the manner in which the side flanges of the hook portion of the anchor are momentarily deflected -laterally to relieve the tensile `stresses in the hook portion thereof during the applying Ymovement of the anchor onto a rail base; and

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional View of a portion of a conventional apparatus utilized to bend the bar into the desired configuration.

Referring to the drawings: 10 designates the base portion of a railroad rail, 11 an underlying 4crosstie on 'which Vthe rail is supported, 12 a conventional form of tie plate interposed between the top surface of the crosstie 11, and the bottom surface of the rail base 10, and 12 designates, as a whole, the improved rail anchor constructed in accordance with this invention and applied to the base portion of a rail in a position to :abut against a vertical side face of the crosstie.

The improved rail anchor 12 is a so-called heavyl bar one-piece type of device, since it is made from a heavy bar of low carbon steel as distinguished from the use of the lighter weight and more expensive high carbon steel. It may be described generally as comprising a low carbon steel bar formed at one end with a hook-shaped bend 13 to provide upper and lower jaws 14 and 15 for frictionally gripping the top and bottom surfaces of a Ibase flange 16 of a rail at one side thereof. The other end of the bar -is ollset to provide a locking shoulder 17 to engage an edge surface 18 of the base flange 19 at the other side of the anchor construction was not Yentirely satisfactory tion on the rail. The portion of the bar intermediate the lower jaw 15 and the said locking shoulder is bowed downwardly `relative to the bottom surface of the 'rail base to provide a tie abutting portion 20 for engaging a vertical face of the crosstie 11 at a substantial distance below the rail base.

Rail anchors of the Aabove class, as heretofore produced on a 'commercial scale, have been usually made from rectangular bar stock having la horizontal width of approximately 7/s inch and a vertical thickness of approximately l1/s inches. The rectangular section of bar was adopted for use, rather than other shapes, since the rectangular section simplified the bending operations. The bending pressure, in such case, could be applied directly to an outerflat face of the bar rather than at other locations. Also, the heated bar, being of a substantial thickness, remained uniformly pliable throughout the bending operation.

`While the above `features were highly desinable in that they facilitated the .manufacture of the anchor device, the anchor construction was not entirely satisfactorily since it did not provide for economical distribution of the metal. Various unsuccessful efforts have been made to overcome this objection. In some instances the use of channel bar stock has been proposed with the view of increasing the effective vertical thickness of the bar and thereby increase the holding power of the anchor device. However, these various proposals have contemplated the use of a bar of the conventional width and thickness, yapproximately 7A; inch in width and 1% inches in vertical thickness, provided with a deep channel, that is to say a channel havingside flanges of greater height, measured from their junction with the base web of the channel, than the vertical thickness of the base web of the channel. Consequently such rail anchors Were unsatisfactory, since a bar of such conventional width used in the manufacture of such anchor devices cannot be satisfactorily made, on a production scale, with a deep channel formed therein. Furthermore, such deep channel, regardless of the manner in which it is formed in a bar of the above conventional width and vertical thickness must necessarily comprise -thin side flanges of substantial height as compared with the overall width and thickness of the bar. These flanges cool very rapidly during the bending operations performed on the bar and, therefore, present the lseveral objections mentioned in the introductory part of the .present application.

The present invention contemplates forming the anchor device from channel bar stock, but the specific configuration of the channel bar stock is such that it avoids the various objections herein mentioned with respect to the channel bar stock vheretofore used.

The preferred 'section of channel bar stock embodied in the present invention is shown in Fig. 4. It-comprises a barformed with a channel 21 in its top face,the oppo- .site sides of which are defined by side flanges 22, 23, the heights of which measured from their junction with the base web 24 of the channel are approximately one-half the vertical thickness of said base web. The inner and outer faces 25, 26 of the side flanges converge toward their upper edges so that the thickness of the flanges progressively decrease toward said upper edges. The outer faces of the flanges are also inclined inwardly. The bottom ofthe channel is formed with a continuouscurve which merges into the inner faces of the Yside flanges. The bottom surface 27 of the bar has rounded corners and defines the width of therail gripping surfaces 28, 29 and 30.

According to the present invention, the heights of the vside flanges ofthe channel stock measured yfrom their junction with the Vbase web '24 -of the bar approximate only `1/3 pf the over-all vertical thickness of the bar. This construction presentsia distinctladvantage'during the bending ofthe bar intothe desiredhook-shapedconguration 'shownfinFig l, infthat'fthe Jargebodyoffmetal constituting the'base Aweb 24 of thebar transmits suflicientheat dot-and-dash lines.

to the side flanges 22, 23 to maintain them pliable and thereby permit Athem to respond to the stretching `and compression forces developed during the bending of the heated bar around a forming die, for example the anvil die 35 shown in Fig. 7. By maintaining the flanges 22, 23 pliable they are not subjected to the forces which otherwise -tend to force them into lateral angular positions.

The anchor device, when constructed from the improved stock vabove described, provides greater strength per unit weight as compared with anchors of this type heretofore made from bar stock of rectangular cross section of similar width and vertical thickness. Also, the exibility of the hook portion 13 is greater than that of a solid rectangular bar of comparable vertical thickness, since the side flanges of the improved bar on the outer side of the neutral axis of the bend are bowed outwardly in response to the compression forces developed by the spreading of the hook as it is driven onto the base ange 16 of the rail. The outward deection of the said flanges are indicated by the dotted lines 32 in Fig. 6. This deflection, however, is only momentary during the application of driving force to the hook portion, but it serves to Vmove the tensile area toward the inner face of the bend by momentarily shifting the neutral axis of the bend vfrom the dotted position NA-l shown in Fig. 5 to the dotted position 'NA-2 and thereby momentarily reduce to a minimum the stresses incident to the spreading of the hook as it is driven .onto the base flange of the rail. The iiexing or Vspreading of the upper jaw 14 relative to the lower jaw is very slight, as shown in dotted line 33 in Fig. l; the .dotted line representing the normal position of the upper jaw before the anchor is applied to a rail. It will be seen, therefore, that the maxi- 'mum expansion of the hook is relatively small as compared to the end opening of the hook. This condition is maintained because of the fact that the bar is composedof low carbon'steel and, therefore, has `a relatively low elastic limit as compared to the elastic limit of higher carbon spring steel.

The manner in'which the bar stock is bent into the desired configuration is illustrated in Fig. 7 of the drawings. The bar is first bent to an intermediate position in a breakdown die (not shown) in which it is bowed to form the tie abutting portion 2t) and in which the en'd 34 is bent to the angularposition shown in Fig. 7 by the The partially bent bar is then placed on the anvil portion 435 and is clamped thereto by a pres- -sure head36. The end 34 of the bar is then engaged by .a wing arm 37 and bent around the anvil die 35 until it assumes :the full line position shown in Fig. 7. The .wing varrn37 is preferably provided with rollers 38 which Vride. on suitably positioned trackways 39 `and the end 40 of the lwing arm presses against the outer edges of the side flanges V22, 23 of :the bar during the ventire bending :operation Whenthe vwingarm reaches its final position sufficient pressure is developed at the end 40 thereof to indent the side Vflanges as indicated at 41 and thereby insurerm contact of the surface 28 of the bar against the inclined under-surface 42 ofthe vanvil die.

VI claim:

A rail anchor comprising va rolled .metal bar vbent at one end into a hook'adaptedito be `expanded into elastic clamping contact'with the top and bottom surfaces of a base portion of a railroad rail atone -side ,of the rail, locking means at the other end of 'the bar for engaging -an V'edge'portiont of the rail base at the other side of the Yrail, and a downwardly bowed tie abutting portion intermediate said hook and said locking means; the said yanchor 'bar being of lchannel configuration in .cross-section with the vbase of the channel being composed of a rectangular body of metal having perpendicular side faces and having a vertical height equal to the width of the anchor and -the sides of the channel being 'defined by flanges which are perpendicular to the base of the channel leach of which has a height substantially equal 5 to one-half the vertical thickness of said base portion of the channel and with the inner and outer side faces of each ange inclined toward eachother to provide a substantially balanced progressively increased distribution of metal from the top to the bottom of the ange at opposite sides of a plane perpendicular to said base and which bisects the angle between said opposite sides of each flange to resist lateral displacement of the ange during the bending of the bar and to provide the flange at its junction with the base of the channel with a width substantially equal to one-half of the width of the anchor 5 placing lateral stresses.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 2,473,345 Preston .Tune 14, 1949 2,511,062 Hyle et al June 13, 1950 2,535,739

Hyde et a1 Dec. 26, 1950 UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,936,127 May lO', 1960 Ralph W. Payne It is hereby certified that error appears in theprinted specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 2, lines 7l and 72, for "anchor constructionl was not entirely satisfactory tion" read rail and thereby lock the anchor in its applied position --5 column 3, line 20, forv "satisfactorily" read satisfactory i Signed and sealed this 11th day of October 1960.

(SEAL) Attest:

KARL H AXLNE ROBERT C. WATSON Attesting Ufflcer Commissioner of Patents 

